1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cart with a wheel that is easily lockable and unlockable while being securely braked.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In a goods carrying cart used for carrying goods in a post office, a warehouse, and the like, generally, a platform onto which articles may be loaded is provided at a lower portion of a cart main body, wheels for moving are rotatably provided at front and rear lower portions of the platform, and a handle including a “∩” shaped frame is provided at a rear portion of the platform. A cart user transfers goods within a predetermined section by rotating the front and rear wheels while pushing the handle.
However, in the case in which the above-described goods carrying cart moves and then stops while the goods are loaded thereon, since the wheels of the cart are not fixed even on the flat ground, there is a concern that, during the task of loading goods, the goods carrying cart and the goods placed thereon may be moved. Further, when attempting to perform the task of loading goods while the goods carrying cart is placed at an inclined place, there is not only a concern about accidents because the wheels of the goods carrying cart are not fixed, but also a problem in that it is not possible to perform the loading task itself.
To address these problems, a technology has been developed in which a cart is allowed to be braked easily and conveniently by a user's foot, while the cart is driven, a foot brake pedal is prevented from interfering with freight loaded on a loading plate, and, while the cart is braked, the foot brake pedal, which visually indicates a braked state to a user, is disposed at a rear side of an upper portion of the loading plate at which a handle portion, which is provided adjacent to the user, is disposed.
An example of such a technology has been disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0101318 (Date of Publication: Sep. 17, 2010).
However, in the above related art, since, in order to brake the cart, the user has to always press the foot brake pedal while placing his or her foot thereon, there is a problem in that the braking of the cart is immediately released as soon as the user removes his or her foot from the foot brake pedal for the goods loading task.
In addition, in the conventional general goods carrying cart, while an angle at which left and right frames of the handle portion including the “∩” shaped frame is provided is perpendicular with respect to the platform onto which articles may be loaded, and only an upper frame disposed at upper portions of the left and right frames of the “∩” shaped frame is formed to be inclined with respect to the left and right frames, the platform is disposed in the vicinity of the ground and thus a center of mass of the platform itself and goods placed thereon is lower than that of the upper frame in most cases. However, since the user pushes the handle from top to bottom at a slant, there is a disadvantage in that, when the user applies a pushing force to the goods carrying cart in order to move the goods carrying cart forward, since a horizontal component force of the pushing force transferred to the center of mass of the platform and goods loaded thereon of the goods carrying cart becomes smaller, a greater pushing force has to be applied in order to move the goods carrying cart onto which goods are loaded.
Furthermore, in the case of the conventional general goods carrying cart, since, when attempting to fold the handle to be parallel to an upper surface of the platform, the user has to release a device for fixing and releasing a folded state by hand and then push the handle again by hand to fold the handle to be parallel to the upper surface of the platform, there is a concern that the handle may collide with the platform and be damaged when the folding of the handle is released. In order to prevent this, the task of unlocking the folded state should be performed by one hand while the handle is held by the other hand, and the folding task should be separately performed after the folded state unlocking task is performed. Therefore, there is an inconvenience of having to use both hands during the folded state unlocking and folding tasks.